>It simplifies much of the design-time stuff, like using drag and drop screen design, and it really is necessary to make use of private datasessions.

Well, I've managed to figure out how to do private datasessions without a DE (just use the appropriate commands in the load I think it was ... I dunno, I don't have the code in front of me right now, and I haven't done it often enough to have it memorized yet <g>) And as far as drag-and-drop, I just do that from my database container.

>As to hoops, again, most commercial frameworks have all the necessary code in place to use the DE. Once you have the necessary hooks in place, it's easier to use the DE for implementing your application; drag the tables and views that you want onto the DE, and then simply drag fields or views onto the form to get their pre-defined controls set up.

Well, I don't have a commercial framework to work from (not in the old budget) and so I try to develop my own. It was easier to do in FPW 2.6!! <g>

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, I'm just trying to understand the pro's and con's of all available methods of doing things (and of course trying to find justification for the way I've decided to implement it).

Bonnie